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Glossary

What is Kanban?

A visual workflow method where work flows across columns representing stages (To Do, In Progress, Done).

Kanban (Japanese for 'visual signal') is a workflow management method that uses a board divided into columns to show work at every stage. Each piece of work is a card; cards move left-to-right as they progress. Originally developed at Toyota for manufacturing, it was adapted to software in the 2000s and is now the most common visualisation in project-management tools.

When to use

Pick Kanban when work is continuous (support tickets, content production, ongoing client work) rather than time-boxed. Pick Scrum / Sprint planning when you can group work into fixed-length iterations.

Related terms

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